The present invention relates to a motor-driven, reciprocating dental tool which provides means to safely prevent undesirable rotation of the tool during use and further provides sanitary means for simultaneously applying a fluid medium, such as dental cleaning paste, to teeth while mechanically treating, such as cleaning or polishing the teeth by abrasion, and more particularly while mechanically providing reciprocating motion to an abrasive member through which the fluid paste is simultaneously applied.
There has previously been successfully provided a mechanically driven hand tool, which can be readily powered by a conventional rotary dental drill, to provide reciprocating motion of the type preferably used when abrading or filing teeth or removing excess restorative material, such as hardened dental amalgamsor dental composite materials. Such abrasive methods, depending upon the hardness of the abrasive material and the rapidity and pressure with which the abrading surface is applied, can be used to either remove hardened amalgam or dental enamel or to merely remove plaque and to clean and polish teeth surfaces, including both the major lingual and facial surfaces of teeth as well as the proximate faces bordering the teeth interspaces.
The reciprocating handpiece, such as the device described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,552,022 to Axelsson, and commercially available as a Dentatus EVA Reciprocating Motor Driven Handpiece, has been used for both purposes, together with the dental abrasive tools formed of, e.g., hardened or diamond coated metal blades or plastic blades with or without embedded abrasives.
It is also known to utilize a syringe type of device to apply toothpaste and the like material for dental hygienic cleaning prior to application of either a mechanically driven or manually operated tooth cleaning means, whether for clinical use or for home use. Such a device is shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,411,623 to Axelsson.